Drug Store
LAURA SCHUMACHER
Executive vice president, general counsel and secretary, Abbott
Laboratories
Age 46
COMPANY PROFILE
Abbott Laboratories is a major manufacturer of
pharmaceuticals and other medical products, includ-
ing nutritionals, devices and diagnostics. Abbott
employs more than 72,000 people and markets its
products in more than 130 countries. The company
had 2008 revenues of about $29.5 billion and has
a market capitalization of $71.1 billion, according
to Market Watch. Half of all sales are realized by the
pharmaceuticals division.
LEGAL TEAM AND OUTSIDE COUNSEL
From the company’s Abbott Park, Ill., headquarters, General Counsel Laura Schumacher heads the
equivalent of a midsize law firm, with 162 lawyers and
a combined force of 328 including staff. Within the
legal department, Schumacher runs an operations
department responsible for purely business functions,
such as information technology systems, finance and
human resources. The department budget runs to
“tens of millions” of dollars, she said.
Schumacher uses outside counsel for a variety
of projects, including tax, mergers and acquisitions,
patent and big-ticket complex litigation. Her hiring
criteria include expertise, geographic coverage, diversity, innovation and fee structure.
“I don’t hire firms—I hire lawyers,” she said.
OUTSIDE COUNSEL
COMPANY
ABBOTT LABORATORIES
CORPORATE
TRANSACTIONS
TORTS AND NEGLIGENCE
Chisenhall, Nestrud; Flynn,
Gaskins; Kelley Drye; Kirkland
& Ellis; Patterson Belknap;
Snell & Wilmer; Thompson Hine;
Venable; Wheeler Trigg
Schumacher has engaged lawyers from firms including Munger, Tolles & Olson of Los Angeles; Patterson
Belknap Webb & Tyler of New York; Chicago-based
Winston & Strawn; and Jones Day.
The department is committed to diversity and pro
bono work; women hold more than 50% of manage-ment-level legal positions and members of minority
groups hold 20%. “We expect diversity from our outside law firms, and it is one of the criteria we use in
selecting the appropriate law firm for a given matter,”
she said.
Abbott is a signatory to the Pro Bono Institute’s
Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge and the Diversity Call
to Action.
Altogether, Schumacher said, Abbott supports more
than 50 legal and community service programs including
immigration clinics; Veteran’s Administration hospital
patient programs; food banks and homeless shelters
programs; lawyers in the classroom, other tutoring
and child advocacy projects; free legal advice to the
elderly and indigent; care packages for terminally ill
EMPLOYMENT AND
LABOR LITIGATION
Goldberg Kohn; Wilmer
Cutler; Winston &
Strawn
IP LITIGATION AND PATENT PROSECUTION
Baker Botts; Blakely Sokoloff; Bozicevic, Field;
Covington & Burling; Finnegan Henderson; Gillam
& Smith; Goldberg Kohn; Graham Curtin; Grippo &
Elden; Fulwider Patton; Jackson & Co.; McAndrews
Held; Munger Tolles; Patterson Belknap; Richards
Layton; Riker Danzig; Squire Sanders; Winston &
Strawn; Workman Nydegger
